Alison Fast and Chandler Griffin introduce Barefoot Workshops to members of the U.S. State Department after a four-week filmmaking workshop teaching grassroots leaders to address challenges surrounding HIV/AIDS using media.
In November of 2006, Barefoot Workshops partnered with the President’s Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI), to train students and NGP workers to leverage digital video technology to highlight effective solutions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Students were paired with local organizations to shoot, produce, and edit three-minute Video Policy Letters that focused on a program or best practice that deserves increased funding and support.
Resulting videos were screened live from the US Consulate in Cape Town, via videoconference, to members of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), USAID’s Global Health Office, U.S. Department of the State, Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Corporate Council on Africa and Computer Frontiers.
The program succeeded in using low-cost video technology to communicate targeted information to policymakers- bridging those at the grassroots level with stakeholders at the top.
HIV/AIDS Program In South Africa
Members of U.S. State Department offer final comments at DVC conference regarding potential of media to combat HIV/AIDS. The conference was a partnership between Barefoot Workshops and The President’s Digital Freedom Initiative.
VIDEOCONFERENCE
(Opening Remarks)
VIDEOCONFERENCE
(Closing Remarks)
Barefoot Workshops builds the capacity of individuals and institutions - often those who would not ordinarily have a VOICE - to tell stories that can powerfully impact their local and global communities.
Since November, 2006, I have been working as Program Director developing media workshops in Africa & The Middle East. [See Resume]
The President’s Digital Freedom Initiative
“Video Policy Letters”
In response to our work in Africa, Barefoot Workshops is pioneering unique formats, or “media templates”, to assist governments, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and medical institutions, among others, to tap the power of low-cost digital video technology to deliver solutions into communities in which they work.
We customize programs to help those directly affected by issues such as, HIV/AIDS, war/conflict, displacement, poverty, and illiteracy, to message more effectively to their own people, and to bridge them together with stake-holders - locally and internationally- who can assist their goals.
The long-term role of Barefoot Workshops in South Africa is to facilitate a hub of media-interested organizations such as Soul City, loveLife, Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, YouthAIDS, and others, to collaborate in the creation of a video library that serves as a resource for all organizations engaged in HIV/AIDS education, training, treatment and care.
The Power of Media: HIV/AIDS Video Library
In April, 2007, Barefoot Workshops ran a second workshop in South Africa, “True Life Stories: Girls Speak Out”, continuing to train our former students, and leading a ten-day workshop, that put video cameras into the hands of eight girls, ages 13-17, in the township of Soweto, who are orphaned by AIDS. [read more]
True Life Stories: Girls Speak Out!
“Peer Counseling Videos”
Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation
“Behavior Change Videos”
Contacts:
Alison Fast
Program Director
Africa & The Middle East
Barefoot Workshops
Chandler Griffin
Founder & Director
Barefoot Workshops
In May, 2007, we trained staff members of The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation to produce short videos covering such topics as, ARV treatment, the importance of disclosure, and maintaining negative status. The videos screened at the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences at University of Cape Town, and won a commitment on the part of Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation to initiate and host a film library produced by the DTHF Film Team, who will continue to write and produce video submissions.
We also aim to catalyze broader distribution of media at a grassroots level, in the communities that need it most, through mobile devices and community screenings, and at a national and international level through mainstream media.
To this end, we offer ongoing intensive workshops in video production with the aim of training the trainers, housing skills locally, and producing regular content that can be distributed to a growing network of local and international groups.
We are presently seeking funding to role out the first 18 months of training, and to create a local steering committee to advise the project in South Africa.
(written by Alison Fast)
